Spying under Louis XV

An extract from Dave’s article ‘Spies’. “In addition to the heads of le Secret du Roi, there were a number of other very notable characters. There was Comte de Saint-Germain, for example, described by Casanova, in a classic pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment, as ‘the king of imposters’. Saint-Germain was an extraordinary, multi-talented, adventurer who claimed, amongst other things,

Scholasticism

An extract on scholasticism from Dave’s article ‘Enlightenment Roots - Introduction’. “From the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century the system of thought that dominated European schools and universities was known as ‘Aristotelian scholasticism’, or just ‘scholasticism’. In the thirteenth century, St Thomas Aquinas (1225 to 1274) and his followers demonstrated that

Cabbala

An extract from Dave’s article ‘Cabbala’, a form of Jewish mysticism the practise of which fascinated Casanova throughout his life. “Cabbala sprang from Judaism and sought to explain the nature of creation and existence and, in particular, its relationship with its creator. Cabbalists investigated classical Jewish literature to find concealed inner meanings, using a range

Copyright (c) 2017, Kevin Butters & David Thompson. We, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website. All the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved.

If we discover that you have used our copyright materials in contravention of the licence set out in our copyright notice, we may bring legal proceedings against you, seeking monetary damages and/or an injunction to stop you using those materials. You could also be ordered to pay legal costs.Our full copyright notice can be found under 'contact' at the top of the page.